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Ombre Painted Dresser

It was so fitting that, as I was working on this project in my garage, I turned around and spied this beautiful sunset:

The photo doesn't do it justice, but that was exactly the feeling I wanted to evoke with this ombre paint job.

Step 1: Find a piece of furniture that's long overdue for a pick-me-up. For me, it's this sad veneer-covered dresser that lives at the crux of our entryway, living room, kitchen, and dining room. Poor thing.

Step 2: Remove hardware and drawers. Clean.

Step 3: To avoid this frustration, use the best-ever Zinsser primer
(no sanding required, which is good for veneer and, let's be honest, for anything. Who likes to sand, anyway?)...

Step 5: Paint base color. I did one coat over the entire piece using my main color (Persimmon Red, by Martha Stewart). I then did two more coats of this color on just the top tier, sanding between each coat. I painted about an inch or two below where I wanted the tier to end.

Step 6: I mixed in a little white into my roller pan (not a lot. I'd be adding more later, and I didn't want to go too light too fast.) with the main color. A rough estimate would be 2/3 regular color to 1/3 white. Using a foam roller, I did the next tier, overlapping the bottom of the first tier's paint.﻿

Step 7: When the 2nd tier was dry, I mixed in some more white with what was in the roller pan (again, about 2/3 roller pan color and 1/3 white). Mix it well! You don't want random dark or light stripes going through the middle of your tiers. I then used a foam roller to paint the next tier.

Repeat Step 7 for as many ombre tiers as you have.

(Note: Because I wanted the overall effect to mimic the sunset inspiration photo above, I did not measure or do harsh divides between the tiers of color. I wanted a loose, almost cloud-like flow from one﻿ tier to the next. You could measure and tape these off if you wanted a different look.)

My husband, keeping me company in the garage while I worked on this, complimented, "You wouldn't even know that this is some Wal-Mart find."

To which I replied, "I know! That's the whole point." And it is, isn't it? Putting our own unique stamp on stuff. I love that.

Anyway. I did two coats of polyurethane, spray painted the knobs, and let it all dry (which, for me, is usually the hardest step).

So, I'm interested: Are you a Yay or Nay on ombre? For my part, I couldn't love this transformation more.

23 comments:

adorab! i was thinking about doing that to an old dresser i have sitting around..but i'm not brave enough to do the whole thing...just diff shades for the drawers. you lost me on the 2/3 math stuff. yikes. i love it. great knobs too. just painted gold?

I've seen ombre drawers done, too, and I love the look. If this had more than 2 drawers, I may have gone that route as well.

With the 2/3 ratio, basically I took original Color (say, 1 cup) and mixed in 0.5 cup white, for a total of 1.5 cups of New Color A. (Since 1 cup of the total 1.5 cups are original Color, that's 2/3.) After I used that New Color A (on the top drawer & stripe), I had about 1 cup left, so I mixed in another 0.5 cup white for a total of 1.5 cups New Color B. And so on.

Thanks Marla! (Or Steve.) I have the hardest time pinning down a color from the scads of paint chips at the store, but every once in a while I feel like I choose the right one. This is one of those occasions. :)

Thank you thank you! You know, I don't have much else in the coral scheme going on around my house, which made me hesitate slightly in going that route. But then I thought, "if I don't have anything coral, it's time to change that!"

I love love love it too. Nothing brings happiness into a room like a cheerfully painted piece of furniture. Thanks so much for sharing this great piece with BeColorful's Motivated Monday this week. I hope you will be returning. Love your style.p

How did you get the drawer glides removed from the top drawer space without having to dismantle the whole dresser? I am thinking about doing something similar, to make room for a blu-ray player and use the top of my BR dresser for a television.

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Hey! I'm Brittney. I have a husband, 4 kids, an ever-evolving home decor style, and a budget. I DIY and thrift-hunt and share it all with you here. So pull up a chair, grab a cookie, and (e)stay awhile.